The 25 best romantic films of all time | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/series/the-romance-25
Our guide to the greatest romantic films of all time, part of the Guardian and Observer's Film Season 2010en-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2016Fri, 09 Dec 2016 13:54:37 GMT2016-12-09T13:54:37Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2016The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
The greatest films of all time: top 25 romantic movieshttps://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/oct/16/greatest-romantic-films-of-all
The first part of the Guardian and Observer's seven-section Greatest Films of All Time series kicks off today with Romance. So ... is there love in the room for the films on our list?<p>The first part of the Guardian and Observer's seven-section Greatest Films of All Time series kicks off today with Romance.</p><p>What makes a good love story? Compared with some of the other categories, this is perhaps one of the more straightforward questions. Classic romances, that have proved themselves over time, are less likely to be superannuated by modern technological advances in cinema than films in, say, the sci-fi and fantasy section. That still doesn't mean we didn't have room for the likes of Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Before Sunrise, alongside All That Heaven Allows, Doctor Zhivago and Roman Holiday. Some of the suggestions were inspired: until now, I suspect no one had thought of WALL-E as a great love story.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/oct/16/greatest-romantic-films-of-all">Continue reading...</a>CultureFilmRomanceSat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/oct/16/greatest-romantic-films-of-allPhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveThe one for you? ... Brief Encounter topped the Guardian and Observer’s list of greatest romantic films ever.
Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveThe one for you? ... Brief Encounter topped the Guardian and Observer’s list of greatest romantic films ever.
Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveAndrew Pulver2010-10-16T11:00:01ZThe 25 best romantic films of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-introduction-film
• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/16/greatest-films-of-all-time">Datablog: download the full list</a><p>Romantic longing has provided the cinema with some of its most glorious and idealistic movies: Casablanca and Brief Encounter are films with an unabashed, unironic passionate flame at their centre. </p><p>Movies such as Gone With the Wind and Doctor Zhivago lent something grand and epic to romantic love, but it was perhaps the much-loved weepie An Affair to Remember that did the most to introduce us to the more domestic idea of the chick flick or the date movie – the romantic film adored by women and tolerated by their husbands and boyfriends.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-introduction-film">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-introduction-filmPeter Bradshaw2010-10-16T11:00:00ZJoe Queenan's guide to romance clicheshttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-cliche
<p>According to popular lore, the romantic film is based on a simple formula: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again. But that is not true. For the most part, the boys have nothing to do with it. The cliche that actually serves as the infrastructure of the classic romance is that the female lead almost never ends up with the man she was originally supposed to spend the rest of her life with. That has been true ever since Cary Grant starred opposite Rosalind Russell and Katherine Hepburn in The Front Page and The Philadelphia Story, and it runs straight through Notting Hill and The Runaway Bride and Sweet Home Alabama and (500) Days of Summer. Romances are constructed around the idea that love is an obstacle course, but if you keep your nose to the grindstone, the rewards can be immense.</p><p>That is actually the theme of every Jane Austen novel, and of every movie based on a Jane Austen novel. Romances are built upon the idea that Prince Charming actually exists, but he&nbsp;may be a bit rough around the edges or temporarily unavailable, like Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre or the long-lost boyfriend in A Very Long Engagement, or the weird guy who keeps popping in from the future in The&nbsp;Time Traveller's Wife. It helps a lot if the woman initially hates the man – 10 Things I Hate About You is an obvious example, as is Guys and Dolls. And it also helps if Prince Charming finds the female lead a bit annoying, as Heath Ledger does in 10 Things I Hate About You and as Matthew McConaughey does in How&nbsp;to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and as Dudley Moore ultimately does in Ten. There&nbsp;is something about movies with the number 10 in the title that always deals with unlikely pairings. Nobody&nbsp;knows&nbsp;why.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-cliche">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/romance-clichePhotograph: KobalJennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. Photograph: KobalPhotograph: KobalJennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. Photograph: KobalJoe Queenan2010-10-16T11:00:00ZWho are the most unlikely screen couple?https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/screen-couples-romance
We asked you to suggest the most mismatched lovers in cinema. Here are some of the best gruesome twosomes<p><strong>@DukeLuke </strong>Steve Martin and the Brain in The Man With Two Brains. He falls in love with a brain in a jar. It doesn't get much odder than that.<br><strong>@dukemedia </strong>Professional cockney urchin Danny Dyer and one-time X-Files star and FHM's sexiest woman Gillian Anderson in ill-fated British revenge thriller Straightheads.<br><strong>@Hows</strong>, <strong>@filmcat</strong>, <strong>@Fantaxamus</strong>, <br><strong>@ontheroad2</strong>9, <strong>@catburgler</strong>, <br><strong>@theythinkitsallover</strong> Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in Harold and Maude.<br><strong>@carrion4891</strong> Shia LaBeouf and Megan&nbsp;Fox in Transformers 1 and 2 – he'd never get her.<br><strong>@Victoriatheoldgoth</strong> Most French films pair an extraordinarily beautiful woman with an absolute gargoyle.<br><strong>@fishworld</strong> Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut. Has all the tension and compelling reality of a disposable in-flight magazine. Double&nbsp;points because they actually were a couple.<br><strong>@breakingranks</strong> Thora Birch and Steve&nbsp;Buscemi in Ghost World.<br><strong>@AnomieAndBonhomie</strong> Roger Moore and Grace Jones in A View To A Kill. She's huge, he's 57.<br><strong>@albert23</strong> Dazzling film (and great dancing at his age) but Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire in Funny Face is a difficult one to believe.<br><strong>@54onthefloor</strong> Kip and Lafawnduh in&nbsp;Napoleon Dynamite.<br><strong>@Rence</strong> Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.<br><strong>@paddyboro</strong> Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci in Buffalo 66.<br><strong>@rolandb</strong> Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche in Louis Malle's Damage showed a startling lack of chemistry.<br><strong>@nilpferd</strong> Possibly contentious, but I always found Grace Kelly's prim society dame and James Stewart's not-quite-convincing, hard-boiled slob of an action photographer completely mismatched in Rear Window. Though I&nbsp;think Hitchcock intended it that way.<br><strong>@LaTricoteuse</strong> Brando and Schneider in Last Tango in Paris.<br><strong>@daniellearwicker</strong> Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Taylor – first half of Cleopatra (and yet far more watchable than her and Burton in the second half, even though they were having an affair off screen).<br><strong>@reddog100</strong> Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in The Tourist ... the trailer alone is enough to make one swear off fantasies involving gorgeous strangers!<br><strong>@DanAshcroft</strong> Hot-as-hell Sophia Myles with Jamie Bell in Hallam Foe (he&nbsp;plays a odd character who wears a&nbsp;dead badger on his head).<br><strong>@Milo2010</strong> Jack Black and Kate Winslet in The Holiday.<br><strong>@EmmyS</strong> Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit ... interspecies tomfoolery with&nbsp;a spangly red dress.<br><strong>@BadBoyBubby68</strong> Am I bringing the tone down if I say Donkey and the dragon in Shrek? It just brings horrific graphic images to mind – and they breed!<br><strong>@Londontoffee</strong> Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.<br><strong>@piltrafilla</strong> Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas. Although, that didn't ruin my enjoyment of it one jot. Beautiful film.<br><strong>@bruthead</strong> Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner in Invention of Lying. Never seen less screen chemistry.<br><strong>@charliekaufman</strong> Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in Last Chance Harvey. Awful, awful.<br><strong>@Bowfinger</strong> Vin Diesel and anything made of flesh and bone.<br><strong>@Slabface </strong>Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett in Saturn 3. Only couple as bad in movie history is Harvey Keitel and his really cheap-looking robot in the same woefully awful film.<br><strong>@NonOxbridgeColumnist</strong> John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis (A Fish Called Wanda). A tribute to both that they almost make it&nbsp;convincing.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/screen-couples-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/screen-couples-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveNicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveNicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveGuardian Staff2010-10-16T11:00:00ZBrief Encounter: Archive reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance-archive-review
From the Observer, 25 November 1945<p>Noël Coward's Brief Encounter (New Gallery) is, to my mind, not only the most mature work Mr Coward has yet prepared for the cinema, but one of the most emotionally honest and deeply satisfactory films that have ever been made in this country. I doubt very much if it will be generally popular. It represents a&nbsp;confidence so utterly frank that few people will be simple enough to accept it as true.</p><p>It is the story of a middle-aged married man and a middle-aged woman who meet by accident, fall deeply in love, and agree to separate and get over it. Their rendezvous is a station refreshment room in a North-Country market town. He is a doctor, who comes in every Thursday to take over a morning's duty at the local hospital. She is a housewife, who comes in to change her library book, go to the pictures and do her weekly shopping. He catches the 5.40 down. She catches the 5.43 up. For a few stolen moments each week, over thin cups of tea from the urn and the prosaic Bath bun, they escape into a world of enchantment that would probably never have been theirs had they met earlier, when each was free; when neither had contracted responsibilities that were heavy enough to escape from. The tragedy of their romance is that it is doomed to be barren from the start. From the instant when the couple realise that their relation is something stronger than mere friendship, their happiness is lost. Innocence of action betrays the guilt of thought. The woman becomes suddenly aware of the weight of affection that holds her to her husband, the hundred tiny steely threads that bind her to her home. The man, while ready enough to throw over his own traces, is tender enough to respect hers, and so they part.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance-archive-review">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:54:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance-archive-reviewPhotograph: Ronals Grant ArchiveCelia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter. Photograph: Ronals Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronals Grant ArchiveCelia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter. Photograph: Ronals Grant ArchiveCA Lejeune2010-10-16T10:54:00ZBrief Encounter: the best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance
David Lean, 1945<p>In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? We are accustomed to attributing films to directors, but it's only proper to regard Coward as an equal author of this movie. He&nbsp;wrote the script, taking it from his&nbsp;own one-act play, Still Life. He&nbsp;made the leads "nice" people (Laura and Alec, a housewife and a doctor) and the supporting characters clear-cut English types – Stanley Holloway as the&nbsp;naughty, good-hearted station master and Joyce Carey as the bossy, buffet manageress, as well as Cyril Raymond who is quite exquisite as Laura's husband, Fred, a decent dullard&nbsp;who senses that his wife has "been away" but cannot dream of what&nbsp;she has been up to or how close they have all come to disaster. </p><p>It is Coward's preference, too, that family and stability are so respected in this film. Never married, and discreetly gay, Coward knew enough not to offend middle-class propriety. David Lean, on the other hand, was raised a strict Quaker and was always in rebellion against restraint – so he was married six times and, on his own, he might have pushed Laura and Alec a degree or two further than made Coward comfortable. If that sounds odd, you have to remember the extent to which Lean was Coward's protege. The young editor had been noticed by Coward and promoted to help direct and then take over directing In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit and finally Brief Encounter.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceNoel CowardStageFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:54:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveCelia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter (1945) Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveCelia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter (1945) Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDavid Thomson2010-10-16T10:54:00ZCasablanca: The story of a scenehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-closing-scene
<p>The film is headed for an airport that has sound-stage written all over it. When they get there, three&nbsp;people will work out the allotment of two letters of transit. They all wear hats, which cast stylish noir shadows of longing and regret on their starry faces. The story goes that the film-makers hardly knew what the final arrangement was going&nbsp;to be.</p><p>The set-up reminds us that not too many Hollywood films of the golden era explored the deal romance might make with life. Most lovers are shrugged off at movie's end to live "happily ever after". But no love is stronger than the type that endures separation, frustration or problem. People looking at each other are more palpably in love than those in each&nbsp;other's arms. After all, the&nbsp;uncinematic thing about an embrace is that you can't see the faces. So the cross-cut close-ups of Bergman and Bogart at the end,&nbsp;in the fog, are among the most enduring images of Hollywood romance.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-closing-scene">Continue reading...</a>RomanceHumphrey BogartFilmCultureCasablancaSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:53:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-closing-scenePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveCasablanca Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveCasablanca Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDavid Thomson2010-10-16T10:53:00ZCasablanca: No 2 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-romance
Michael Curtiz, 1942<p>The unspoken tremor in most wartime movie romances is that the picture needs to address the feelings of couples separated by war. It's not just whether they will both survive, but whether love and desire can overcome the temptations that come with separate lives. There's another element at work (vital to romance and the age of censorship in the movies) which is that desire may mean the most when it cannot be consummated: the wish for intimacy is so intense because the act is forbidden or impossible.</p><p>In Casablanca, we assume that Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) had a good deal of sex in Paris, but in their awkward reunion in north Africa, sex is not renewed. Rather, the triangle of Rick-Ilsa-Victor (Paul Henreid) must contemplate the ultimate selection of just two of them to go forward. And we know now what Rick's decision is, even if in our enlightened time we may ask whether Ilsa shouldn't have been doing some of the deciding. But the romantic or erotic energy is sublimated in the most impeccable cause of all – the war effort. Rick forsakes Ilsa as part of his new commitment to the fight against fascism.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceHumphrey BogartFilmCultureCasablancaSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:53:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/casablanca-romancePhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/WARNER BROSCasablanca Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/WarnerPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext/WARNER BROSCasablanca Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/WarnerDavid Thomson2010-10-16T10:53:00ZBefore Sunrise/Before Sunset: No 3 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/before-sunrise-sunset-romance
Richard Linklater, 1995/2004<p>An American man and a French woman in their early 20s meet on a train heading through Europe. They alight in Vienna, amble around for 14 hours and shoot the breeze. Yes, the plot of Before Sunrise could be written on the back of a Eurail ticket, but it's what Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) say and don't say during their Austrian walkabout that makes the film what it is: a gentle but canny Gen-X fusion of My Dinner With Andre and the Judy Garland shore-leave romance, The Clock. </p><p>As the soon-to-be lovers chat, show off, lark around and kiss, with director Linklater's camera a tender and unobtrusive companion, a sense of yearning bubbles up in the movie: we sense time slipping away, and the dawn approaching. When the morning arrives, and the time comes to part, Celine and Jesse promise to meet again in Vienna in six months' time; in that pre-Facebook era, the arrangement had a heartbreaking&nbsp;fragility.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/before-sunrise-sunset-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceRichard LinklaterFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:52:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/before-sunrise-sunset-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveBefore Sunrise. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveBefore Sunrise. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveRyan Gilbey2010-10-16T10:52:00ZBreathless (A Bout de Souffle): No 4 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/breathless-bout-souffle-romance
Jean-Luc Godard, 1960<p>In 1946, Humphrey Bogart had played "Bogey" in The Big Sleep, alongside his wife-to-be, Lauren Bacall, a sexy daughter available for marriage. Maybe the Hollywood dream never had a purer, crazier manifestation. But here we are, 15 years later: Bogart is dead and, worse, his Hollywood has entered its funeral years. And then arrives Jean-Luc Godard, half in love with that old mythology, half contemptuous of it. So Jean-Paul Belmondo, a magnificent jerk, will model himself on Bogey and take&nbsp;off.</p><p>Breathless was Godard's first feature, and his first demonstration of how to turn the raiment of the Hollywood dream inside out. In addition to putting Godard's love-hate relationship with Hollywood up on the wall like graffiti, it&nbsp;was a signal that movies could be made nearly as quickly and cheaply as we might write emails. So it's important to remember that while Breathless still feels desperately modern, it was made before the machinery of our modern culture. It was done from a four-page outline, on about $48,000, with a quarter of that paying for Jean Seberg, a failure in Hollywood, but&nbsp;the hip new thing in Paris in 1960. She's Patricia, an American who sells the New York Herald&nbsp;Tribune on the streets, and Belmondo is Michel, an existentialist idiot on the run after he shoots a cop. His days are numbered and the film moves like a Charlie Parker solo – so&nbsp;hectic you wonder if the alto sax will&nbsp;live out the next 16 bars. There's no way it should work, being made up as they went along, but&nbsp;Godard knew it was time to treat the&nbsp;audience like dirt and his characters&nbsp;like shit. This casual malice&nbsp;turned into a monument&nbsp;nonetheless.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/breathless-bout-souffle-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceWorld cinemaFilmCultureBreathless (A Bout de Souffle)Sat, 16 Oct 2010 10:51:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/breathless-bout-souffle-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveBreathless Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveBreathless Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDavid Thomson2010-10-16T10:51:00ZIn the Mood for Love: No 5 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/mood-for-love-romance
Wong Kar-wai, 2000<p>Wong Kar-wai takes his time shooting a film, setting out without a conventional script and waiting to see where the mood takes him; his actors rarely have possession of the bigger picture. As it turned out, this is a sizzling romance about two cuckolded next-door neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who fall in love with one another. As rendered by Wong's regular cinematographer, Christopher Doyle (and his replacement, Mark Lee Ping-bin, who took over when the shooting schedule overran), the lush colours on screen are mellowed with nostalgia and ripened by sensuality. As much as this is the story of love blossoming out of rejection, it is also a testament to its director's ongoing infatuation with cinema. What he can do with a passage of music, a close-up or an adjustment in film speed makes most other directors look unfit to shoot a nativity play. Doyle observes the tentative encounters from behind lamps and cabinets, or from under a bed. If you didn't already know this cinematographer's work, you might assume Wong had hired a private detective for the job, so skilful are the furtive compositions.</p><p>It is an unorthodox romance, widely regarded as the director's finest work. And it is as impeccably turned out as you would expect from a Wong Kar-wai film. Audiences might well emerge craving props and costumes featured in the movie – the silk and gossamer dresses worn with perfect Audrey Hepburn poise by the regal Cheung, or the brilliantine that gives Leung his authentic Clark Gable sheen, or the snazzy noodle-flasks with which these almost-lovers collect their supper from a basement cafe. Unlike its 2004 semi-sequel, 2046, there is more here than just style. A&nbsp;heartbreaking final scene more than substantiates the idea that it is a Brief Encounter for the 21st century.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/mood-for-love-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceWong Kar-WaiWorld cinemaFilmCultureIn the Mood for LoveSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:50:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/mood-for-love-romancePhotograph: The Ronald Grant ArchiveMaggie Cheung and Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. Photograph: The Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: The Ronald Grant ArchiveMaggie Cheung and Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. Photograph: The Ronald Grant ArchiveRyan Gilbey2010-10-16T10:50:00ZThe Apartment: No 6 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/apartment-romance
Billy Wilder, 1960<p>Fresh off Some Like It Hot, the director, Billy Wilder, his co-writer, IAL Diamond, and their star, Jack Lemmon, bowled straight into making The Apartment. Two&nbsp;perfect comedies in a row: how's that for a double whammy? The germ of the idea for The Apartment had actually sat in Wilder's notebook for many years, ever since he watched Brief Encounter and scribbled down the words "Movie about the guy who climbs into the warm bed left by two lovers." </p><p>CC&nbsp;"Bud" Baxter (Lemmon) is the poor sap in question. He's rising fast at work, one promotion after another, but the secret of his success is that he loans out his apartment to the company executives for their trysts, one 45-minute slot at a time. It's a sleazy little set-up, and Wilder keeps the movie galloping along so briskly that we can overlook the unpleasantness at first. But then reality starts to creep in as Baxter realises that the woman he longs to bring home in his arms – chirpy elevator assistant Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) – has already been to his apartment, in the company of his boss (Fred MacMurray). The question of how Baxter finds out allows Wilder and Diamond to demonstrate their knack for succinct storytelling: one broken compact mirror is all it takes to make his heart break. They're unbeatable at turning out these "moments" – witness also Baxter's classic straining-spaghetti-through-a-tennis-racket scene, born out of Diamond's realisation that "Women love seeing a&nbsp;man trying to cook in the&nbsp;kitchen."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/apartment-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceBilly WilderFilmCultureThe ApartmentSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:49:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/apartment-romancePhotograph: Everett Collection / Rex FeatureShirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon in The Apartment. Photograph: Everett Collection / Rex FeaturePhotograph: Everett Collection / Rex FeatureShirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon in The Apartment. Photograph: Everett Collection / Rex FeatureRyan Gilbey2010-10-16T10:49:00ZHannah and Her Sisters: No 7 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/hannah-sisters-romance
Woody Allen, 1986<p>That Chekhovian title may have promised Woody Allen at his most pretentious, but this 1986 roundelay grossed $40m and became his biggest ever box-office hit. The film shuffles interconnecting storylines concerning three Manhattan sisters: the warm, well-meaning Hannah (Mia Farrow) is married to the bumbling Elliot (Michael Caine), who is in turn attracted to her sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey). As an affair begins between the two, Lee's own relationship with the tormented artist Frederick (Max von Sydow) comes under strain, and light is brought to an otherwise dark canvas by Hannah's ex-husband, fussbudget TV producer Mickey (Allen), who becomes involved with Hannah's other sister, the jittery Holly (Dianne Wiest).</p><p>So what was it about Hannah that made it so successful? The balance of comedy and drama is deftly maintained, and there's a palatable, soapy aspect to Elliot and Lee's affair. The film, with its chapter headings, aspires to a novelistic structure, each part favouring a different character or storyline. And the performances are uniformly subtle, especially from Caine (who won the Oscar for best supporting actor) and the underrated Farrow, who was then an Allen regular as well as his off-screen partner. Indeed, Farrow brings genuine mystery to a nurturing figure who may not be as saintly as she seems. "Hannah was a character neither Mia nor I understood, at the start, and at the finish," Allen admitted. "We could never figure out whether Hannah was the bulwark of the family and the spine who held everyone together, or whether Hannah was not so nice … Mia looked to me for guidance and I could never give it to her."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/hannah-sisters-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceWoody AllenFilmCultureHannah and Her SistersSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:48:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/hannah-sisters-romancePhotograph: Public DomainHannah and Her SistersPhotograph: Public DomainHannah and Her SistersRyan Gilbey2010-10-16T10:48:00ZEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: No 8 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/eternal-sunshine-spotless-romance
Michel Gondry, 2004<p>Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Girl&nbsp;gets fed up with boy. Girl erases all memories of boy from her mind in&nbsp;a dubious brain-zapping procedure. Boy&nbsp;finds out and does the same. This&nbsp;is&nbsp;a romantic movie, Charlie Kaufman-style. It takes its title from a 1717 poem by Alexander Pope and charts the side of love that movies usually try to ignore: the arguments, the boredom, the irritating habits that drive couples apart and the dreadful, stilted moments that accompany a break-up. Love Actually, it ain't.</p><p>As you would expect from the writer of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, this is not the story of a doomed relationship told in a straightforward fashion. Joel Barish is a withdrawn, greyish man, played with uncharacteristic restraint by Jim Carrey. Clementine Kruczynski (a brilliant Kate Winslet) is free-spirited, reckless and prone to dying her hair blue. When they meet on a train travelling through wintry Long Island in the film's opening scenes, it's as if they've never met before – but of course they have. The&nbsp;strange attraction that draws them together is down to the fact that, until very recently, they were lovers. Their forgetting is the work of Lacuna Inc., a shady New York company that liberates its clients from unwanted memories.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/eternal-sunshine-spotless-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceJim CarreyKate WinsletFilmCultureMichel GondryEternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:47:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/eternal-sunshine-spotless-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJim Carrey and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJim Carrey and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveKillian Fox2010-10-16T10:47:00ZA Room With a View: No 9 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/room-with-view-romance
James Ivory, 1985<p>Few collaborations are so distinctive that the names of those involved come to denote a genre, rather than just a credit. A Room With a View, the first of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant's EM Forster adaptations, was shot before the term Merchant-Ivory had become an insult; watch it today and you'll blush to have ever smirked at the cliche. This is incredibly fresh and arresting film-making: moving and amusing, swooningly romantic and socially ferocious – nothing less than a full-frontal (in every way) assault on&nbsp;your&nbsp;soul.</p><p>Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) is on a Baedeker-led tour of Florence with punctilious cousin Charlotte (Maggie Smith) when she encounters, at their pensione, free-thinking Mr Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his dreamy son, George (Julian&nbsp;Sands). Through a series of bloody physical confrontations and, worse yet, sticky etiquette breaches, Lucy's desire for emotional freedom starts to bubble, coming to the boil when George kisses her in a cornfield. But Charlotte witnessed the snog, so Lucy is whisked back to Surrey, where she gets engaged to the horribly priggish Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis), to the polite distaste of her family, and the Rev Beebe (Simon Callow, uncharacteristically subtle). Then the Emersons reappear …</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/room-with-view-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureHelena Bonham CarterA Room with a ViewSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:46:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/room-with-view-romancePhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext CollectionJulian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in Room With a ViewPhotograph: Allstar/Cinetext CollectionJulian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in Room With a ViewCatherine Shoard2010-10-16T10:46:00ZJules and Jim: No 10 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/jules-jim-romance
François Truffaut, 1962<p>Jules and Jim was the biggest box-office success the French New Wave ever enjoyed. When it opened in Paris in January 1962, it played for nearly three months and it found the same crowds all over the world. (In America, two young men saw it – Robert Benton and David Newman – and they began to write a script that would become Bonnie and Clyde.) Although set in the era of the first world war, its sexual manners were an indicator of the 60s to come, with Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) in love with and loved by two men (at least) – Jules, a German, played by Oskar Werner, and Jim, a Frenchman, played by Henri Serre. </p><p>The way Jules and Jim emerged was a tribute to Moreau and to Truffaut's obsession with the idea that women were magical. It's an early dramatisation of feminist principles, but it's also the portrait of a bipolar personality drawn to self-destruction. For Truffaut, it was a perfect balancing act between wry observation and sentimental involvement with his own&nbsp;characters. The period material, the sets and costumes, work very well in a wide-screen format, but in truth it's the lethally mercurial temperament of Moreau that holds it all together. She was at her peak in the early 60s, young enough to be sexually compelling, but wise enough to be a tragic witch. Along with its less famous sequel, Two English Girls, this is Truffaut at his best.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/jules-jim-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceWorld cinemaFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:45:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/jules-jim-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDavid Thomson2010-10-16T10:45:00ZAll That Heaven Allows: No 11 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/all-heaven-allows-romance
Douglas Sirk, 1955<p>A Douglas Sirk romance with Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman: you know this isn't going to be a smart-assed dissertation filled with intellectuals swapping barbed, ironic witticisms. Even so, this 1950s melodrama – as&nbsp;underscored by Todd Haynes' modern riff, Far from Heaven – offers smart insights into the American class system and carries a powerful emotional clout way beyond the usual limitations of its genre. </p><p>Wyman plays a widow slowly emerging from mourning to embrace the world again, caught between the daredevil impulses which see her step out in a gossip-generating, low-cut, crimson dress, and her deep sense of propriety and responsibility to her children. She rejects a marriage offer from an older man who promises her companionship and affection, but is drawn to her gardener, Ron, who is impetuous, bold, direct and opens wine bottles with his teeth. Everything you want from a tumultuous weepy is here: hard, breathless kisses; big, brave declarations of violent, undying love; battle-weary, star-crossed lovers who meet obstacles at every turn. But Sirk surpasses melodramatic cliches by securing an exceptional performance from Wyman, whose soft face, as watchful and nervously expectant as a child's, is capti­vating through­out, subtly registering every chink&nbsp;of hope and approa­ching black cloud.&nbsp;This is her, and&nbsp;Sirk's finest hour.&nbsp;</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/all-heaven-allows-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:44:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/all-heaven-allows-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJane Wyham and Rock Hudson in All That Heaven Allows. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJane Wyham and Rock Hudson in All That Heaven Allows. Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJane Graham2010-10-16T10:44:00ZGone With the Wind: No 12 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/gone-with-wind-romance
Victor Fleming, 1939<p>Frankly you would have to be as black-hearted as Rhett Butler not to give a damn. In nearly four hours of ravishing Technicolor, Gone With the Wind does it bigger and better than almost anything else. The story opens in the last graceful, lazy days of the Old South, soon to be ripped apart by civil war, and sees out the painful reconstruction years. But&nbsp;what's history next to the epic love story of bad seeds Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler? She's a tough-headed southern belle (Vivien Leigh) and he's a wayward ladies' man (Clark Gable); the sort, as Scarlett observes, who has a pretty good idea of what a woman looks like without her petticoat on. Seventy years on, audiences continue to be swept up by the extravagance and confidence of the Hollywood golden age in its stride. </p><p>Leigh and Gable deliver two immortal movie lines, of course: Rhett's damning parting shot and Scarlett's vow that all is not lost and that "tomorrow is another day". You might expect the stage-sets to creak but, for a generation reared on CGI, the sumptuous plywood and papier-mache facades are irresistibly magical – all that is dated is the wincing stereotype of slaves. Directed with pace and spirit by&nbsp;tough guy Victor Fleming, this is a love story to&nbsp;get your&nbsp;teeth&nbsp;into.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/gone-with-wind-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:43:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/gone-with-wind-romancePhotograph: KobalGone With the Wind. Photograph: Kobal CollectionPhotograph: KobalGone With the Wind. Photograph: Kobal CollectionCath Clarke2010-10-16T10:43:00ZAn Affair to Remember: No 13 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/affair-to-remember-romance
Leo McCarey, 1957<p>For those of us who like to immerse ourselves in sense-assaulting love stories, this 1957 Leo McCarey classic is as good as it gets. A relentlessly heart-tugging tale of two soulmates whose love even great tragedy cannot tear asunder, An Affair to Remember tosses and turns the emotions but never descends into schmaltz; it stays compelling – partly down to its smart, surprisingly sassy script, which often holds back when it could go for the cheap weep, but also because it is brought to us by two of the classiest acts in Hollywood history: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.</p><p>Grant in particular is in devastating form as the charismatic womaniser who is struck down by lovesickness for a woman he believes has rejected him. (It's hard to believe George Clooney didn't spend the 90s watching reruns of this.) Even for those who have never seen it, An Affair holds a unique place in the collective memory of American film-goers, comparable perhaps to the place Brief Encounter has in British hearts and minds. But the film that reduced Meg Ryan to a snotty, gibbering wreck in Sleepless in Seattle is no iconic fossil – that final scene retains its powers to enthral and discombobulate to this day.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/affair-to-remember-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceFilmCultureSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:42:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/affair-to-remember-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDeborah Kerr and Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveDeborah Kerr and Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJane Graham2010-10-16T10:42:00ZThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg: No 14 best romantic film of all timehttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/umbrellas-cherbourg-romance
Jacques Demy, 1964<p>Against a sumptuous backdrop of jewel-coloured houses filled with candy-striped rooms, two of the most enchanting young leads ever captured on celluloid – Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo – fall passionately in love. From the off, Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece, in which every line is sung, impresses as a super-stylish paean to the&nbsp;MGM musicals, complete with a swinging score by Michel Legrand and bustling street scenes choreographed with the minute precision and contagious energy of Gene Kelly's finest work. </p><p>But if 50s America was the&nbsp;land of the happy ever after, Demy's film marks very different, distinctly European territory, as a call-up to the Algerian war for Castelnuovo leaves his newly pregnant lover bereft. Gradually the fairytale withers, and yet the music carries on. The film is transformed into something entirely unique – a musical as bright and beautiful as any you'll ever see, which swiftly becomes a sad and soulful tale characterised by that least romantic of all things: disappointed compromise. Demy doesn't pull his emotional punches – the pain of loss and dying hope is palpable in every visually delectable frame – and his star-crossed lovers keep singing right up to a snow-laden, final scene of devastating emotional power. Unforgettable.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/umbrellas-cherbourg-romance">Continue reading...</a>RomanceCatherine DeneuveWorld cinemaFilmCultureThe Umbrellas of CherbourgSat, 16 Oct 2010 10:41:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/umbrellas-cherbourg-romancePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluis de Cherbourg). Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchivePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluis de Cherbourg). Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveJane Graham2010-10-16T10:41:00Z